(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a browser program for use in a display apparatus having a browser function and displaying a web page acquired from a web server over the network, and in particular to technology for acquiring a web page in a desired text language via a so-called global website, and displaying the acquired web page.
(2) Related Art
In recent years, in order to provide web pages in multiple text languages, a website (so-called global website) (hereinafter, referred to as the “global website”) having links to web pages in multiple text languages has been provided via a web server. A website refers to a group of web pages that share a common domain name in a uniform resource locator (URL) and have a hierarchical structure.
Global websites are created mostly by international companies having operations worldwide, and provided for users via web servers managed by the international companies. A user accesses a web server providing a global website via a terminal and the like having a browser function, and acquires a web page in a desired text language from the web server via the global website to view the acquired web page.
Specifically, a user accesses a home page (a web page at the top of web pages having a hierarchical structure, a web page indicated by a URL http://(domain name)/, here) of a global website via a terminal, selects a link to a web page in a desired text language from a list of links to web pages in multiple text languages to acquire the web page in the desired text language from a web server, and causes the terminal to display the acquired web page to view the acquired web page.
Meanwhile, a location and a size of the list of links to the web pages as described above as well as a method for displaying the link differ among global websites. There are some global websites at which it is not easy to find a location of the list from a home page. At such global websites, it takes a long time for users to find the list. Furthermore, at global websites providing many options for links, it might take a long time for users to specify and select a link to a web page in a desired text language from a home page.
As technology to eliminate the above-mentioned problems, the following technology is disclosed: A server stores therein URLs of web pages as link targets in association with text languages of the web pages indicated by the URLs. Upon transmission of information on a desired language from a user's terminal to the server, the server specifies a URL corresponding to the desired language, and transmits the specified URL to the user's terminal (see Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2008-250491).
This technology enables a user to acquire the web page in the desired text language from the web server via the URL transmitted from the server without spending much time and effort, and to display the acquired web page on the terminal to view the acquired web page.
With the above-mentioned technology, however, it is necessary to provide the server for storing therein the URLs of the web pages as the link targets. This adds to the complexity of a device configuration and a device cost.